Shoppers Flock Back to the Mall to Hunt Deals

Saturday

Nov 27, 2010 at 5:09 AM

On this year’s Black Friday, retailers and analysts said they saw a surge in traffic at stores over last year.

STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Americans are shopping selfishly again.

On this year’s Black Friday, retailers and analysts said they saw a surge in traffic at stores and malls over last year, and also were noticing that shoppers snapped up discretionary items for themselves rather than gifts or necessities.

Still, the shop-a-thon that began late on Thanksgiving night was not a free-for-all. Burned by the recession and its aftershocks even now, many consumers looked for major deals, or stayed within strict budgets by limiting themselves to cash.

There were longer lines than in recent years, from the hundreds of people who spent the night outside a Best Buy in Oakland, Calif., to the 75 people outside an Atlanta-area Macy’s at 4 a.m. When the doors opened, the crowd was so excited that one bleary-eyed man ran smack into a glass window. (“The window looked like a door,” said the man, who was unhurt. “It’s too early.”)

Near Chicago, Wal-Mart tried a crowd-control technique: handing wrist bands to shoppers who wanted access to the 5 a.m. electronics prices, so admission would be limited and there would be less of a frenzy. At an upscale mall outside Los Angeles, although shoppers were treating themselves to items like limited-edition Nike shoes and jewelry, many paid in cash.

“You can just feel it in the air — people want to spend money again,” said Karen Stanek, manager of an Old Navy store in Arlington Heights, Ill. “The mood of the customers is more positive than it’s been in years.”

Analysts, mall owners and retailers said that traffic was higher than last November and that people seemed to be spending more. But concrete assessments as to whether sales were up over a year ago, and if so, whether they were enough to lift major retailers out of their long-term, recession-driven slumps, were not available. The first sales figures for Black Friday will not be available until later this weekend.

“I spent more this year, but we got great savings,” said Pamela Anderson, 50, who had been shopping at the Macy’s flagship store in New York for more than six hours. Her black hair was still perfectly curled, but she was starting to sweat as she fought the crowds.

Trying to get upstairs to check the price on a pair of corduroys, she encountered a three-minute line just to get on the escalator. “You have to keep moving. Please do not stop,” guards shouted, directing shoppers getting off the escalators.

Ms. Anderson, a mental health and chemical abuse specialist, had bought two pairs of boots, coats, sweaters and four bottles of perfume.

Huddling against a column near the men’s ties, Renae Shoulders, 31, and her aunt Donna Winemiller, 51, looked for their friends as shoppers rushed by.

“I spent more on myself this year, definitely,” Ms. Shoulders said, adding that promotions like “buy one, get one free” on clothes had led her to increase her spending.

Like Ms. Anderson, many people seemed to be enjoying more frivolous purchases — good news for an economy in which nonessential spending has been weak.

At an Oakland Best Buy, Jan Paolo Patena, a 19-year-old college student, was waiting to buy an external hard drive.

“Black Friday is all about me,” he said. “I’m not here for anyone else. This is not about Christmas presents. If somebody else wants something, they can stay out here in the cold all night.”

Rebecca Bolivar, 19, a college student who was shopping at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J., said she came to buy shoes, jackets and gifts for her boyfriend, in that order.

“If I run out of money, I go first,” she said.

At a Best Buy in Patchogue, N.Y., despite a chilly rain, the line for the 5 a.m. opening stretched about 350 yards down the street. Julio Jaber, 25, was there to buy a 55-inch TV. “It’s for myself,” he said, shaking his head as rain fell on him. “For somebody else? Forget it.”

Malls, like the Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, Va., and the Beverly Center in Los Angeles, Calif., reported similar sentiments. At Sears and Kmart, many shoppers bought on layaway, said a spokesman, Tom Aiello, indicating that the items were not gifts.

“You have more spontaneous shoppers buying things for themselves,” said Maureen Bausch, executive vice president of business development at the Mall of America.

For example, at the Macy’s in Ross Park Mall in Pittsburgh, there was a one-hour wait to try on and buy shoes, while at the Gucci outlet in Desert Hills Premium Outlets in Cabazon, Calif., more than 1,000 people lined up for the midnight opening.

“Across the board, it looks better this year than last year,” said Charles O’Shea, senior retail analyst at Moody’s. “There’s more traffic this year than last year, the stores are fuller, the parking lots are fuller.”

Several malls reported jammed parking lots, including in Indiana, Washington State, Ohio and Tampa, Fla. By midnight, when the Dolphin Mall in Miami opened, its parking lot was completely full, while at Great Lakes Crossing Outlets in Auburn Hills, Mich., the lot was full by 1 a.m.

Stores, too, were reporting long lines. More than 7,000 people were outside the Macy’s flagship store in Manhattan when it opened at 4 a.m., a spokesman, Jim Sluzewski, said, compared with about 5,000 last year.

There were 350 people lined up outside the Victoria’s Secret in Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn, Mich., when it opened; 100 waited outside the Saks at Stony Point Fashion Park in Richmond, Va.; and Kmart said that at most stores, 300 or more people lined up before the 5 a.m. openings, a higher number than last year. At the Best Buy in Oakland, Calif., about 500 people were in line when the store opened at 5 a.m., substantially more than last year, employees said.

“It was like a shantytown out there,” the store manager, Nick Ramos, said, adding that almost 200 people had camped out Thursday night. By Friday morning, fast-food containers, empty cans of energy and coffee drinks, and empty beer bottles were strewn on the sidewalk.

A small and dirty white couch was left after the crowds rushed into the store. “I hope someone comes to get that couch,” Mr. Ramos said. “But I have a feeling we’re going to be stuck with it.”

One sector that seemed weak was dollar stores. At the Family Dollar on a dingy stretch in working-class South Boston, shoppers were mostly buying basics or holiday decorations.

“It’s not as busy as we expected,” said Robert Brennan, the store’s assistant manager. “We’ve got to compete with Wal-Mart and those other stores that opened at 4 a.m.”

Stores were quite competitive about deals this year, with most running heavy promotions. Shoppers seemed to be responding — in Kmart in Midtown Manhattan, Katherine O’Donnell, 42, a nurse, had dropped her four shopping bags, stuffed with clothes and boxed items like a hairdryer and a toaster, by the baby-clothes section.

“I brought this from home,” she said, gesturing at a rolling suitcase she would use to carry her purchases home. “I thought it was all I was going to need, but, no.” She had found deals on sneakers, boots, cast-iron cookware, home appliances and costume jewelry, she said.

Gwen Watson, who was shopping at the Mall at Short Hills in New Jersey, said she didn’t even plan on doing Black Friday shopping, but this year the prices were too good, like a $19.99 toaster that was exactly like one she had bought for $60.

“The deals are unbelievable,” she said, struggling to lift a half-dozen bags. “I need a cup of coffee because I got up so early, and I can’t get a cup of coffee because there’s no way for me to carry it because my arms are so full.

Shoppers were not doing much frenzied spending. Many carried circulars or had researched prices on the Web, and several said they were just paying with cash this year.

Valerie Dean, 50, an administrator at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority who was shopping at Santa Monica Place, spent about $800, and paid entirely with a debit card.

“I’m probably spending the same as last year, but I’m not charging,” she said. “It seems like now with credit cards, even if you have good credit, it’s too much, the rates are too high.”

Donna Laemont, who was shopping at Target in Arlington Heights, Ill., said she was also avoiding debt.

“I never use a credit card anymore, because I remember always regretting having to pay everything back after the holidays,” she said.

Jonathan Blanco, 23, a pharmacy assistant at the University of California, Los Angeles who was shopping with a debit card at the Nike Store at Santa Monica Place, had a similar take. “When you have the actual money, why not spend it, as opposed to going into debt and paying interest?” he said. “Last year, it took me six months to pay it off.”

Claudia Ramirez, 18, a student, was also spending with just cash, 10 crisp $20 bills that she had taken out so she could budget.

“I wanted to limit myself,” she said.

At the Mall of America in Minnesota, Julie Melchor, 38, and her husband Ozzie, 36, of Kankakee, Ill., said they were spending a bit more this year. (It had been a good year at the cornmeal factory where Ozzie works.) But they had gotten rid of their credit cards two years ago and were paying with a debit card. “We’ve been married 12 years, and it took 10 years to pay them off,” Mr. Melchor said. “No more credit cards.”

In Oakland, Aleida Lyons said that though she was feeling good about the economy because of the stock market, she was sticking to cash for her $1,000 in Christmas gifts.

Ms. Lyons was leaving Best Buy empty-handed because the laptop she wanted had sold out. “It’s so crowded,” she said. “I don’t think I can handle this.”

That was good news for the ultra-competitive shoppers like Mr. Patena. He had been waiting for the Best Buy to open since Thanksgiving night, bringing lawn chairs, a Golden State Warriors fleece blanket and Thanksgiving leftovers. “People who don’t know what Black Friday is all about don’t know what they’re getting into,” he said. “You have to be prepared.”

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